The United States is facing a shortage of medical workers nationwide, but doctors at Providence Holy Cross in Mission Hills say that given the rate of innovation, now is the most exciting time to entire the field. Case in point: the Da Vinci Xi surgical robot.
This four-armed robotic work of art allows surgeons to complete delicate, precise and complex operations that are minimally invasive and it has been used to complete 3,400 procedures at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. To celebrate this benchmark Providence invited top calculus and physics student from nearby Alemany High School to see the robot for themselves.
Students not only got to watch Da Vinci Xi in action, but were also allowed to get their hands dirty — or in this case, surgically clean — through operating the robot themselves.
Dr. Ali Cheaito, a surgeon with Providence Facey Medical Group who uses Da Vinci Xi all the time in his day-to-day work, gave the students a demonstration of how to control the robot’s arms.
“They’re even more accurate than someone’s hand, because there’s no tremor and they can approach areas that are very small,” said Cheaito. “It also gives us a great visualization; it magnifies the tissue times ten, which helps us to see microscopically some of the layers and some of the blood vessels.”
Da Vinci Xi only needs to make a small incision to enter the patient’s body, and that can accelerate their recovery times compared to traditional surgery, Cheaito added.
“When we do robotic pancreatic surgery, usually patients are staying in the hospital less — (because) they’re not requiring blood transfusions. So they’re able to get back to normal faster,” he said. “And if they require treatment after the surgery, like chemotherapy, they’re able to reach recovery and get back to getting that faster.”
The celebration also served the dual purpose of inspiring more students to pursue careers in medicine.
The U.S. faces a projected shortage, in…
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